Season series: This is the fifth and final game. The St. Louis Blues have won all four games against the Minnesota Wild, including each of two games at Xcel Energy Center, where the Wild are 14-7-5 all-time against the Blues.

Big story: The Blues are ahead of the Wild in the standings, but they have much more at stake Thursday. The Wild clinched the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference's Stanley Cup Playoff race with a 4-3 shootout win against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. The Blues (111 points) are two points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche for the Central Division title and are also locked in a race with the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks for the top seed in the West.

Team Scope:

Blues: St. Louis, which until recently had the best record in the NHL, has lost three games in a row and trails Boston by three points in the race for the Presidents' Trophy. With five wins in their past 10 games, the Blues are in danger of having the Avalanche, who are 7-1-2 in their past 10, pass them and claim the top spot in the Central. The team that wins the division will avoid a first-round playoff series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.

Wild: Unlike last season, when Minnesota backed into the playoffs on the regular season's final day, the Wild are rolling right now. Minnesota has taken at least a point in seven of its past 10 games, opening up a healthy lead for a wild-card spot on the Dallas Stars and Phoenix Coyotes before clinching a berth Tuesday.

"Last year, it was disappointing how we made the playoffs," defenseman Ryan Suter said after the game Tuesday night. "This year, we've been playing well and played ourself into the playoffs the way that you want to."

Who's hot: St. Louis forward Alexander Steen, who returned Tuesday from an upper-body injury that cost him three games, has three goals and seven points in his past six games. He leads the Blues with 33 goals and 60 points despite missing 14 games with an injury earlier this season. … Minnesota forward Erik Haula has flourished on the second line in place of injured Mikael Granlund. The rookie has a point in four of his past five games and five points (two goals, three assists) in eight games.

With 3 games left, the Blues still control their own destiny in the West with their magic number for the division being 5 points and for the conference 6.

The sharks 'clinched' a worse record than the Blues last night leaving the Ducks, Aves, Pens, and Bruins as the only 4 teams that could finish with a better record than the Blues. The Blues would need alot of help to best the Bruins for the President's Trophy sitting 3 points back with 3 each to go and Boston holding the tie-breaker. Of course the best help would be to not worry about the Bruins and roll off a three game winning streak to end the season.

Tarasenko's hand surgery was 22 days ago (ie 3 weeks ago yesterday) with an initial announcement of a reassessment in "6 weeks". He should be able to be conditioning prior to that point, but we will need to right the ship without him as barring a major change in his treatment plan, he won't be available for another 3 weeks.

From what I've been hearing, Tarasenko is ahead of schedule, possibly WAY ahead. He's been skating in practices for awhile now and has even started stick handling. Somebody on Twitter suggested he could possibly be back BEFORE round 1 starts, but that seems unrealistically optimistic. But, I've heard a number of others suggest he could be back before the end of round 1. That would be huge.

I think it's worth mentioning that Hitch has said that he more or less isn't that concerned with wins and losses right now...but how the team is playing and responding to things...and he wants the team to be ready to go for the playoffs.

You'd think if the team is playing well and responding well to situations, that they'd actually be winning...but whatever.

I'm so ready for the end of this reg. season. I don't care that much about the last 3 games. Yes, I want them to win the division and the West, but I just want the playoffs to get here and the Blues to start winning games when they really count.

Let's just win tonight and have Colorado lose in Vancouver...and that all but wraps up the division with a 4 pt. lead with 2 games to go. That will get people off the edge of the bridge.

We are seriously at the point where it's fair to ask if you should fire Hitch in order to attempt to salvage the season. If they bomb out, he'll certainly be fired. I don't think I would, but I'd think about it. This season has come completely off of the rails.

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This team was undefeated in regulation against the Central division just a few weeks ago. They now have 5 (I believe). Something has happened to this team. It's not just Tarasenko, it's not Steen's injury (and now Backes and possibly Osh). Losing while playing OUR game is one thing. We're not. We don't look remotely the same.

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